Irish eyes smiling on Leona Maguire, Stephanie Meadow at Women's PGA Championship

SPRINGFIELD, NEW JERSEY – Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow go back. Way back.

Just how long have the Emerald Isle golfers known one another?

“I’ll put it this way,” Meadow said with a laugh. “I knew her when she was reading ‘Harry Potter’ books, so that was a long time ago.”

Maguire, 28, and Meadow, 31, competed against each other in junior golf. They played on the same Curtis Cup team in 2012. They have roomed together. Maguire attended Meadow’s wedding earlier this year.

And on Sunday, as luck would have it, they will tee off in the final threesome at a Major.

Maguire, from County Cavan, Ireland, leads the Women’s PGA Championship at seven-under 206. Meadow, who hails from Northern Ireland and holds membership at the famed Royal Portrush, climbed to third place Saturday at five-under 208.

Along with second-place Jenny Shin of South Korea (six under), they will tee off together Sunday morning (Monday morning, Singapore time) at Baltusrol Golf Club, either of them capable of becoming the first Irishwoman to win a Major title.

“I can’t think of anything much better for Irish women’s golf, which is incredible,” Meadow said.

Maguire is a former No. 1 amateur in the world who is coming off her second LPGA victory at the Meijer LPGA Classic in June. Meadow, on the other hand, is No. 151 in the world rankings and has won a European event in her native Northern Ireland but never on the LPGA.

But Meadow had one of Saturday’s best rounds – five birdies and a single bogey coming together for a 67. She led the field in total putts, needing just 26 over 18 holes.

“We’ve been good friends a long time,” world No. 12 Maguire said of Meadow. “We’ve done battle many times before. It’s great to see her playing so well.”

She led by a stroke after two rounds and scrambled her way to a 69 on Saturday with four birdies and two bogeys. Her two-putt birdie at the par-five 18th helped her wiggle out of a tie with Shin.

So you will forgive Maguire for not wanting to think ahead to any potential celebration.

“There’s a lot of business to take care of between now and then, so not getting too far ahead of ourselves,” she said, before adding that “Irish fans are the best fans in the world.”

Meadow thought of Royal Portrush, where Irishman Shane Lowry won the 2019 Open Championship. “There will be lots of drinks flowing,” Meadow said. “I always feel the support from home.

“I know they’re rooting for both of us, and I hope that we can inspire some young girls in the process... If I can get a win, fantastic. I’m just going to give it all I have and we’ll see how it goes.”

On her day three performance, Maguire, leading a Major for the first time, said: “It was a little bit more of a mixed bag than the first two days but it felt like I hung in really well. I had a few really key up and downs out of bunkers to sort of keep me going out there.

“Always nice to finish with a birdie any time you play. Any time you break 70 in a round in a Major championship golf course you are pretty happy, so nice to have done it for the third day in a row.”

Shin, meanwhile, whose only LPGA title came at the 2016 Texas Shoot-out, matched the week’s low round with a bogey-free 66. She has two top-10 finishes in 57 previous Major starts.

“I went after the pins today and when I had the birdie chances I took advantage,” she said. “I’m going to play my game and keep it simple.”

South African Lee-Anne Pace (70) and Yin Ruoning of China (69) are tied for fourth at four under. A further stroke back is world No. 1 Ko Jin-young (69) of South Korea with American Lauren Coughlin (68). REUTERS, AFP